


show me where my armor ends

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: the odds were never in our favor [12]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, BAMF Klaus Hargreeves, BAMF Number Five, Dark, Dubious Morality, Eventual Happy Ending, Murder, Rebellion, and this is where you see canon-divergence come in, for the hunger games universe, invading the capitol, reginald hargreeves is president snow, such a shock i know right, the death is none of the hargreeves sibs, the handler is president coin, well at least those that are still alive, which is not a surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-11-23 09:46:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18150260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: It's hard not to think about their own Games- the tributes they killed, the way they were all trapped, the ways they almost died- when the Victors are facing down the invasion of the Capitol.This is the final Arena. After spending so long trapped in secondary Arena after secondary Arena, trapped in the Capitol and in their minds and in District 13, it is finally time to escape.The concept of escape is not one that is easily digestible for a Victor. There is no true Victory, after all. The idea that their survival could be over, that there is a way for them to live without the fear of the Capitol and a way to be happy- it almost registers as insane.But they've never been ones for sanity, so bring on the final Games.(The final invasion of the Capitol, and the aftermath of the Rebellion.)





	show me where my armor ends

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Pluto" by Sleeping For Last.

_In the end, what matters is this: I survived._

** -Gail Honeyman **

 

As the wedding winds down, Commander Paylor- District 8's most celebrated hero besides Klaus- walks up to Klaus and Dave. She is dressed in ordinary gray rebel fatigues, just a face in the crowd, but to Klaus and Dave- as well as any citizen of District 8- her face would be recognizable from a mile away. 

"It's nice to see one of our Victors have a happy ending," Commander Paylor says, and it's not exactly true- this is a happy event, but until the Rebellion is over, this isn't a happy ending- but Klaus appreciates it.

"Thank you, Commander," Klaus says, and she gives them both a small smile.

"Two sons of District 8, giving hope to the nation- you make us proud."

Dave places his hand over his heart, with his index finger and middle finger held together and his pinkie and ring finger folded back, as if in a fist- a hand signal not one of the sign language utilized by Avoxes and Allison, but an age old one of solidarity developed in District 8 decades before Klaus or Dave was even born.

The Commander smiles at Dave and gives him a nod. "Thank you, sir. I wish you two good fortune in your marriage."

"And you on the field, ma'am," Klaus says.

- 

Klaus and Dave don't exactly have the usual post-wedding three-day reprieve that is customary in District Eight. Instead, they have a single day off from work, get a room to themselves for the night, and, well, get to have a bit of married fun.

(Well, that's putting it far too lightly for what happens between them, but the optimistic sentiment isn't one to be underplayed. There is something special about being able to be married, to make love and just have a bit of fun with your husband, when your world sometimes seems too dark around you.)

The next day, they get the option to pick a new bunk space with married couples to live in permanently, and Dave doesn't even hesitate before shaking his head.  _They're your family,_ Dave signs,  _I'm totally okay with staying there with you._

Klaus smiles brilliantly and pulls Dave into a kiss, his fingers threading their way through Dave's curls.

The next day, they end right back up in the Victor's bunks, though this time he and Dave occupy bunks on the same bed. 

They can wait until the Rebellion is over to get a room of their own. For now, it's important to stay with their family.

- 

Once they get the news that District 2 has finally turned its arms against the Capitol, Five, President Handler, Plutarch Heavensbee, and Commander Paylor all summon the main commanders of the Rebels as well as Katniss' Victor squad into the main command room. Each of the man coordinators instructs their separate assigned Commander, ending with Five, who lays out the plan for Katniss' squad.

It makes a decent amount of tactical sense to Diego. Storm the Capitol, send in Katniss' squad for propos content and to take out President Hargreeves, celebrate a victory for the Rebellion. Five will stay in a mobile command center at the edge of the Capitol and District 1 in order to coordinate their efforts.

Not everyone is as understanding, though. “So this is a suicide mission, basically?” Klaus asks, and when no one responds he nods. "Cool. Nice to know."

Diego watches Klaus and he can't tell if the man's joking. He does know, though, the determined look in Klaus' eyes. He knows that no matter what Klaus' attitude is, he won't back down.

It makes sense to send Victors- proven killers- in to take out the final Mark.

Then the pretty solid plan goes down the shitter when Allison gestures to Vanya, who is standing in the back of the room as she tends to recently since the first meeting about the wedding propos.

 _And where is Vanya going?_ Allison asks. 

"She'll go in with your Squad," President Handler says, "In fact, all of the Victors except Five will be going on this final mission, including Allison and Luther."

Five whips around to face her. "What?"

President Handler stares at him, unimpressed with his confusion. "We're going to be sending Vanya on your mission as well." 

Five glances back at Vanya, and Klaus can see the smallest glimmer of doubt in his mind. He's not sure what Five is doubting- whether Vanya can survive, whether she has the whether she can be trusted.

"I want to help you guys out," Vanya says, and though her expression is a bit confused, her top teeth nibbling at her lower lip, her voice is quiet and firm.

Klaus trusts Vanya. She's definitely more of a killer, of a soldier, than Klaus is. She belongs on the squad as much as he does, if not more. His training with knives are nothing compared to the sheer destruction she's wreaked in her time.

He believes in her, and that may make him optimistic, but it doesn't make him a complete fool. He's not naive. He spent six years in the falseness of the Capitol- he knows liars. He knows masks and cheats and the ways in which people can lie without truly telling a falsehood.

Vanya's incredibly, dangerously honest right now. She's been wavering on the edge of sanity for months now, slowly reintegrating reality into her brain. Her bleached white skin and silver eyes are familiar by now.

Klaus knows she's on their side, and that may be an insane belief to have but he doesn't give a shit.

"Alright," Five sighs, and though his tone is incredibly nonchalant his eyes a bit wide, a bit worried in the way only another Victor could see. "She'll go."

President Handler smiles that fake smile of hers, the ones that Klaus doesn't really know how to trust but knows that he has to. "Then we'll start the takeback of the Capitol."

-

Five watches them leave, his heart in his throat.

He doesn't have any more hands to play, now that they're so close to the end. The plan to take the Capitol is the best one they have, and unless President Handler pulls some incredibly stupid move that he has to take the most drastic measures to prevent, he doesn't have anything they can do.

So he just has to head to the mobile command center and perform his duty, waiting until the Rebellion wins.

-

It's hard not to think about their own Games- the tributes they killed, the way they were all trapped, the ways they almost died- when the Victors are facing down the invasion of the Capitol.

This is the final Arena. After spending so long trapped in secondary Arena after secondary Arena, trapped in the Capitol and in their minds and in District 13, it is finally time to escape.

The concept of escape is not one that is easily digestible for a Victor. There is no true Victory, after all. The idea that their survival could be over, that there is a way for them to live without the fear of the Capitol and a way to be  _happy_ \- it almost registers as insane.

But they've never been ones for sanity, so bring on the final Games.

-

 

They’re finally to the outside of President Hargreeves’ mansion, and they've lost some soldiers along the way- Finnick and Boggs and a few rebels- but other than a decently deep cut on Allison's upper thigh that they bandaged up rather quickly before moving on to their next target, all of Klaus' family is still alive and okay, which is all he needs going into the mansion.

So in the middle of all the chaos- the attack on President Hargreeves’ mansion, the dead bodies being frantically attended to by medics, Diego carves his way through Peacekeepers using his knives while Allison does the same with her kukri knife and guns. Luther heads inside ahead of them all, while Vanya sticks by Katniss' side outside and helps as much as she can with the gun she was handed.

And Klaus knows what he has to do. He slips by into the mansion, and he knows exactly where to go from here.

Klaus has been training with Diego and his knives for awhile now. He’d had some experience with them back during his days before being a Victor, though not much. He'd learned more about them during his training for the Quell, during the Games- he had to do his best to help everyone survive for as long as possible.

He’d never used the knives on a person, though. He’d won his Games simply by outlasting everyone, and his final showdown had just been him pushing the emaciated girl from 6- who’d also known how to hide, but not how to steal food consistently well- into a tunnel of mutts. Weapons had not been needed to win. His only ever true kill was almost an accident, not a purposeful kill.

There's a reason why Klaus was made into a whore, why he was never celebrated like Luther or Diego or even Five. He had no flashy kills, no movements of mass destruction, no delicious back-stabbings or betrayals. He just survived, and that was how he made it out of that Arena. That was how he won. He just stayed alive, and that was enough to earn him the crown of Victor.

But no one wants to celebrate a Games won by the dark horse, by the kid who carried no kills under his belt.

And so, for years, everyone in Panem has forgotten about the boy from District 8. They have forgotten how Klaus survived, how he outlasted. He snuck through the darkness like a shadow in the night, outlasted everyone because he knew how to steal without being caught and how to live without being noticed.

And now, when they are taking down President Hargreeves' beloved Capitol, when they are taking down the President himself, he knows how to make it through the mansion without being seen. He knows how to sneak, how to make his way around without anyone catching on.

So he sneaks around the mansion, through back hallways and air ducts and staircases, and he makes his way into the side door to the President's office. Once there, he can hear President Hargreeves trying to work his silver-tongued magic on Luther.

It's not going to work, though. (He's done listening to this monster who calls himself leader.)

Klaus has spent too many years listening to the man's blackmail, his silver tongue getting him whatever he wants. Klaus has lived in misery and prostitution and addiction, watching too many good people suffer because of this man's words.

Everyone he loves has been broken by this man. Klaus and Allison have had their bodies sold, turned into playthings and whores; Luther and Diego have shouldered and grieved every tribute they cannot save; Five and Klaus have turned into alcoholics as kids; Vanya's mind was ripped apart and she became the cause of thousands of deaths; Dave had his tongue cut out and his body remade in the Capitol's image; Ben  _died_.

Most of them became killers as children. They all have nightmares of the blood on their hands, the tributes they failed to save, the lives they had to outlast in order to take home the crown.

So Klaus makes his way around the back of the President's office until he's standing behind the President, and then he whips his hand up and he sinks his knife into President Hargreeves' back.

This is his first proper kill, but in the end it's not exactly a hard decision to make, to protect the ones Klaus loves. This is for Ben. This is for Ben and Finnick and all of the dead Victors and all the dead tributes and all the children who have died for the Capitol's wishes over the years.

The body hits the ground, and Luther stares at him. "Klaus?" he asks, eyes wide, as Klaus stands up, and Klaus nods.

"I might as well finally earn that Victor-title."

Diego enters the room moments later and stops when he spots the body. He stares at it for a moment, then looks up to Klaus. "Good riddance," he nearly spits. "Thanks for taking him out."

Luther blinks at him. "Shouldn't we have had a trial?"

"We were just kids and he ruined us," Diego says, "I don't give a fuck that he died. Klaus did a good job knocking him off."

Klaus snorts. "Thanks, man."

-

Five is in the mobile command center with President Hargreeves, situated on the edge of the Capitol and District 1. They are close enough that she can make a triumphant arrival as soon as the battle is done, but far away enough to keep them out of the heat of the battle.

(Five's not arguing- it's keeping him close to his family as they go into battle.)

But in the meantime, Five is sitting at a dashboard with his fingers on the controls of their bomb systems. The battle is winding down, and for the most part those people he cares about are making it out without any major injuries. He shouldn't be as worried as he is- they are Victors, after all- so he tries to focus on other matters instead, keeping his concern off of those fighting on the battlefield. 

Like the pain in the base of his neck. Five's throat healed a few weeks ago, but sometimes, he still feels it ache. Vanya's got a pretty crushing strength hidden in her small body that leaves a few internal bruises that haven't quite healed entirely.

The pain reminds him of his mortality, a bit. He got scraped up a bit in his Games, yeah, but no one ever got close enough to injuring him.

In the Games, he'd been a terrified twelve-year-old who had known that it was either him or them, that in order to survive he had to to whatever possible to win. In training, he'd studied plant life and the supplies necessary to purify water- the one aspect of being in the Arena he knew he couldn't pull out of his ass. He'd then willingly gotten a low score in training, showing the Gamemakers his ability with knives that he'd straight up fumbled. He hadn't shown off his true talents with engineering and tech until he'd entered the Arena, where he'd run away from the Cornucopia, not even stopping to grab any food along the way. Deep at night, when all of the tributes were asleep, he'd tiptoed down to the mines around the tribute platforms, carefully dug them all out, and rewired half to temporary dormancy and the others to a timed setting. He then hid the dormant half in a cave he'd spotted earlier, snuck over to the Career camp and left the timed half around them, and hurried out, careful not to make a sound the whole time.

Two hours later, he was awoken from inside the cave by five cannons going off. He'd refused to show weakness by reacting to the cannon much, instead just setting his jaw and continuing on.

He'd continued to take out tributes throughout the Games with a carefully placed bomb or two. Small sponsor gifts of food had started to arrive on day three and continued until the final day, seven days in, it had only been him and the hulking eighteen-year-old girl from Eleven, whose arms were strong and used to reaping wheat.

He'd improvised a grenade out of his final mine that had taken her out, and he'd stood there as he was crowned the youngest ever (not accidental) Victor of the Hunger Games. He was given a new name that afternoon, one more suited to his new status as a killer, and he hadn't argued with it. He was smarter than that, after all. He knew what he had to do to make it out of the Capitol with his life and limbs attached.

(He remembers the expressions of the Victors in the first row at his interview, the small, appraising smiles and cool stares as Five had walked out onstage in a white button-down, dark blazer, and slacks, with black shoes shinier than any Peacekeeper's. He remembers meeting Caesar's questions with sharp answers, watching as the Capitol lapped up everything he did. The tiny killer, the child turned monster- they practically worshipped his image.

Five remembers Ben meeting him afterwards, the way Ben had shaken his hand and promised to help him with whatever he'd needed. Five remembers Allison in the years since, inviting him to card games with Klaus. He remembers meeting one of Luther's cats on his Victory Tour, remembers Diego eating with him when he'd stopped in Ten. He remembers Vanya, the only Victor he'd connected with after his own win, and the two of them talking about the connections between District 3's electronic engineering and District 5's nuclear engineering. 

Five remembers, against his better judgement, getting attached to this group of broken, bitter people, learning to love and care for the Capitol whores, the now-Peacekeeper with the dead cats, the slaughterer from the District of the slaughtered, the girl who could change the entire climate of an Arena, and the old man who'd watched more tributes die than anyone else Five cared about.) 

He is flung back into the Rebellion and the modern day when President Handler places a very unwelcome hand on his shoulder and orders, "Drop the bombs."

Five raises an eyebrow. The cameras are still focused on the Victors in the mansion, and she can't mean- “Drop them on who?”

“The mansion,” she says, voice cool and calculated, and his world can’t comprehend what she's saying. Oh, he gets the tactical advantages of dropping the bombs. He gets that they can blame it on the Capitol- after watching the Capitol pull that stunt first with Vanya, Five himself helped Gale and a few of the Gamemakers set up the fake Capitol hovercraft.

But the mansion? Right now? That’s where his family is. That’s where everything he loves is currently fighting.

Five joined this Rebellion not for any sort of altruistic goal, like Klaus and Diego and Katniss did. He did not join this Rebellion to save Panem, to liberate the nation, to take revenge or earn justice for the fallen.

No- Five joined the Rebellion, got the Victors on President Handler's side, for one specific reason. He joined this Rebellion just to save his family, to keep the seven people he loves safe. He did this for Klaus, Ben, Diego, Allison, Luther, Vanya, and Claire. He doesn’t care about the wider picture- he just cares about those specific people. Anyone but those seven people could die, and he wouldn't grieve.

But them? Five would burn down-  _has_ burned down- a nation to protect them. (If they don’t live, then there was never any point to all of this.)

There's no fucking way he's letting her drop those bombs.

Five quickly calculates the results of each of the possibilities- talking her out of it, throwing a grenade, shooting her, throwing a knife.

The first idea he throws out is that of talking President Handler out of it. He has no cards left to play, no ways to 'convince' her not to drop the bombs, especially since he was the person to help develop them.

So that leaves physical violence.

In the years since his Games, Five's spent every moment outside of the Capitol training himself with a knife, making sure that he always has a grenade on him, making sure that he always has a weapon on him. He wants to be protected in every way possible, even in places that should be considered safe, like this command center.

That means that he has a knife in his Rebellion-issued boot, a small grenade sewn into the pocket where everyone else's suicide pills are on his sleeve, and plenty of hand-to-hand combat skills that he's picked up from both Rebel training and Diego's help.

So Five turns, pulling his knife from his boot as he does so, and attacks President Handler. She President fights back against him, the two of them scrabbling around the Command Center for a few brief, harrowing seconds, before Five sinks the blade into President Handler's throat. Blood spurts over his fingertips, and it's not his first kill, by any means, but it's his first one so up close and personal. It's the first one where he can feel the pther person's blood and guts spraying against his knuckles.

And he finds he doesn't much care as the president's body topples to the ground. President Handler was going to kill his family- her death was what could stop that unfavorable outcome, so he did it.

Five takes a deep breath and looks around the command center, noticing that half the screens have gone black- including the ones for the mansion. What the fuck? He looks more closely and realizes that in his fight with President Handler, they knocked out the connection to the cameras on the field. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He can't see what's going on on the battlefield. He can't see his family.

Shit. He has to find out what happened.

He runs out the door of the command center. He's already formulating a way to get away with President Handler's death. Blaming it on Capitol traitors, that it happened after he left, etc. But for now- he rushes to go find a transport. He has to find his family. He has to make sure that they're okay.

“Take me to the Capitol,” Five says to the one transport runner he can find, a sixteen-year-old girl from District 6. “President Handler’s orders.”

This can’t all have been for nothing. Killing ten children, winning the Games, plotting against President Hargreeves, allying himself with someone like President Handler, Dolores’ death, Ben’s death-

His family has to be alive. It just can’t be otherwise.

He has to find them, has to see them, has to make sure that they're okay. Well, not even okay- he's not naive enough to expect them to all make it out healthy and safe. He knows that they are all broken, severely damaged by what's happened.

He'll settle for  _alive_ for now. The "okay" can come later.

-

“Where’re the rest of them?” Five practically shouts at Katniss once he hits the battlefield. Last he saw, his family was in the front yard of the mansion, on their way into the mansion.

She pulls away from hugging one of the medics- Five takes a second to recognize Prim- and points inside. "They all went in to take out President Hargreeves while I stayed and defended with my arrows."

Five nods, then runs inside of the mansion, dodging rebels and medics and some fallen debris. He runs from room to room, trying to find his family and make sure that they're all alive.

And there, in President Hargreeves’ office, in a room where he was first blackmailed into protecting Luther, Klaus, Allison, Diego, and Ben five years ago (and later Vanya), in the room where he swore his lying soul to protecting the Capitol, he finds President Hargreeves’ body lying face-first on the ground, a knife in his back. Around the corpse are Allison, Luther, Diego, Klaus, and Vanya. Luther is crouching down next to the body and examining it, Klaus is standing by its feet and poking at it with the heel of his boot, Allison is writing something down on a notepad, Diego is cleaning off a knife, and Vanya is leaning against the desk, smile small but sincere. Her eyes are still silver, but she couldn't be further from a Capitol toy.

So it's been hours since he last saw his family on the feed, but they're here. They're alive.

 _Alright_ , Five processes, _they’re alive, onto more pressing matters._

“Diego?” Five asks, gesturing to the knife in Hargreeves' back, and Klaus looks up at him.

“You’re alive!” he practically shouts, face lighting up, but Five ignores him in favor of an answer.

Luther shakes his head. “Klaus, actually,” he corrects, and Five raises an eyebrow at Klaus, the Victor with no Kills.

Klaus waggles his fingers in a small wave. "Yep," he says, "Finally collected that first Kill."

“Good job,” Five admits, and Klaus gives him a smile.

"Took long enough," Klaus says, and Five nearly argues. Klaus survived his Games, and though it took Five way more kills to make it out of his Arena, he doesn't begrudge Klaus the way he decided to survive. All that matters is that he's here now, and Five's happy enough that the threat of President Hargreeves is finally gone.

However, Allison speaks before Five can. "Why are you here so quick?" Allison asks, ever practical. "President Handler's plans stated-"

"President Handler won't be bothering us too much anymore," Five says, something hard in his gaze, not shying away from the truth. The statement is heavy, in its way, though something lifts in his heart now that he's said it. He won't have to deal with the President and her words and her hands any longer. 

Then Allison steps forward and pulls Five into a hug. He lets her, even sinking into her hug and the relief that his family's alive, but then she presses into his side and the world whites out for a moment from the pain. He grunts. "Shit," he mutters. The adrenaline has finally worn off and he is no longer distracted from the pain piercing his side.

"Five, you okay?" Allison asks, leaning back with a raised eyebrow, and Five collapses to his knees, feeling pain splinter his side as the blood spreads sticky over the fabric of his shirt. Suddenly the mood in the room isn't relief over killing the president but rather worry as the other four of them rush to Five's side. Diego raises Five's bloodied shirt to reveal shrapnel embedded deep into a bloody wound.

"Fuck," Diego hisses, "Five, why didn't you say anything?"

"Wasn't thinking about it," Five says, voice slurring a bit as his eyes fall shut, and Allison curses.

"We've gotta get him to a medic," Vanya instructs, and Luther picks him up and carries him out of the building to the medics. As one of them- a small woman Klaus easily recognizes as Grace, a medic from District 3 who often helps with the Victor squad when they're out on missions, runs over and starts instructing Luther on how to lay Five out before she starts operating on him and patching him up.

"We just can't catch a break, can we?" Klaus asks, kind of as a joke but his voice breaks a little as he watches Five get tended to. He can't pretend that he isn't worried out of his mind right now, that the shrapnel in Five's side couldn't easily lead to his death. After everything they've been through, it would only be too easy to lose Five now.

(Five is the youngest Victor that will ever be, now. He won at the youngest age, and as of Katniss, will now forever be the youngest living Victor just in general.

If he dies, though- then he will forever be sixteen, dead and young and cremated forever.)

Vanya stands by Klaus' side as Grace works, quiet and small and concerned. Vanya is nibbling nervously at her bottom lip, her arms crossed over the bulletproof vest she was given. Klaus almost wants to reach out and hug her, but he's not sure what she would be comfortable with it so he doesn't.

After Grace is done with all the bandaging and the removal of as much shrapnel as possible without unblocking the wound, she injects Five with morphine.

"If you all are finished with your duties here," Grace says, "It'd probably be best to get Five set up in one of the Capitol buildings for now, while we take care of all the rest of the wounded. We'll get the proper surgery done as soon as all the emergency fieldwork is done, but for now it'll get him out of the action and give all of you a place to rest for a little while before all of the Victory stuff happens. The Morphine should keep him knocked out for long enough."

"Thanks," Klaus says with a grateful nod, and Grace nods back. 

"I do hope he gets better," she says, giving Five a small smile. "He's almost like a son, or maybe a sort of strange nephew."

Diego snorts despite the circumstances as Luther lifts up Five again. "'Strange' is definitely a great way to describe him."

"Alright," Allison instructs, taking a sort of practical leadership role now that Five is out for the count. "You heard the medic. Let's get him to a safe place while everything sorts itself out." 

And so they do.

* * *

In the absence of President Handler and President Hargreeves, Commander Paylor- District 8's favored daughter- becomes President of Panem. She, Plutarch, and a whole host of other District leaders form a parliament, an executive, and a justice system to govern Panem as fairly as possible.

And the remaining Victors, this little broken family? Well, after the war, they all end up living in district 12, in the abandoned houses in the Victors' Village, the only part of the District to survive the fire bombing. Katniss and Peeta move back into Katniss' old house. Allison, Claire, Klaus, and Dave move into one house while Diego, Luther, Five, and Vanya move into another. Haymitch stays in District 13, starting up a relationship with, of all people, Effie, District 12's former escort, while Prim and Mrs. Everdeen move to District 4 with Prim's boyfriend, Rory, to train better as medics.

Here's the most important part of their story: they heal. They build a home for the Victors who survived, learn to live in a world that is built on their own happiness rather than their own survival.  

The scars from the war stay the same. The scars from their respective Games were long ago smoothed away by Capitol surgeries, but the callouses since, the ones from working in District 13 and fighting in the Rebellion and working here in District 12- they stay.

-

Diego meets a woman from the Seam who has returned to Twelve, a woman named Eudora Patch who can wield a firearm almost better than half of the Victors can, and over the course of years they bicker and trade and fall in love. Seven years after the Rebellion ends, they get married in a mix of District 10 and District 12 traditions, with all of Diego's strange family in attendance.

(Klaus jokes that he could hear them bickering on the way to their new married house, and Diego just smirks.)

-

Five finds himself nearly aimless without the goal of taking down President Hargreeves to occupy him, but he's not alone. At least once a week, sometimes more, he'll find himself at Katniss and Peeta's house, talking to Katniss about the bad memories and their time in the Rebellion and what they did to protect their families while Vanya and Peeta talk in the back.

Peeta and Vanya restart the bakery together, him running the kitchen and her running the front. They recruit Five to handle the business side of things as well as trading negotiations with the merchants from other Districts, the ones that deliver the grain from Nine and the other agriculture from Eleven.

(Commander Paylor comms them a few times, offering up Five a seat in her Cabinet, but he keeps turning her down, telling her he'd think about it later. After all, his reason for everything he's done has never been power. His reason for winning the games was survival; everything since has been about protecting his family and getting them as happy and healthy a life as he could achieve for them. Being in the government- that's a nice thought, maybe some day down the road, but for now, he is actually happy.)

Klaus, however, does have a government job. He currently works as the Mayor of District 12. (And Dave makes a very lovely First Gentleman.) It's not exactly what Five would have predicted for Klaus, but he's all too happy to proven wrong.

Klaus doesn't work with the Government in the new Capitol- that's Allison's job as Senator. No, he just works on helping improve things here in 12. He's very hands-on, often going out to help build new houses with his own hands. More often than not, he can be found in the Marketplace or having a meal with his husband in the house of a citizen, listening to their problems and helping as much as he can.

(And the people of 12 love him.)

Luther helps Allison raise Claire, becoming an especially important help during Allison's Senate duties, and in addition to helping with Claire, he and Diego are both working on coordinating and constructing a memorial to the victims of the Games across all all 75 years. They spend time paging through records, trying to collect the names of everyone who has died as a result of the Ganes. Not just tributes, but people who died because of blackmailed Victors and Capitol manipulation.

There's a larger memorial in District 13 of those who died as a result of the Rebellion, but this is different. This is a record of innocents, people who had no choice.

It's a somber reminder of what Five and his family have outlasted.

-

Katniss gives birth to a daughter she and Peeta name Rue, Dave and Klaus adopt a baby son they name Ben, and Diego and Eudora have two childen- an older daughter that they name Lily, after Eudora's mother, and a younger son they name Miguel. The four children are raised as cousins alongside Claire, and eventually alongside other children from families that move back into the District, even including Gale Hawthorne and Madge Undersee's children after they come back, years after the Rebellion ended.

(And all around the District and the nation, people name their children things like Katniss and Klaus and Diego and Five and Allison and Luther and Ben and Finnick and even Vanya.

Around Panem, the Victors aren't viewed as killers- they're viewed as survivors and geniuses and heroes.)

- 

Even after most of them have moved into new houses, they all still come together every other Friday for a family dinner, Dave and Klaus and Vanya and Luther and Katniss and Allison and Peeta and Diego and Five and Claire and Eudora and Rue and Ben. They all barely fit into Klaus, Dave, Allison, Claire, and Ben's house- the biggest in the Village- but it's a sort of crampedness they're all too happy to share.

Five looks at them all one Friday and realizes, joy in his heart, that he never expected to be able to call this many people family. When he'd been Reaped at age twelve, he'd expected to die within the month- but now, ten years later, he has a family that's broken and beautiful and wonderful.

And despite everyone that's missing, the ones who have died along the way- things have gone far better than they ever should have. Nearly all of his family is alive and happy and prospering, not just surviving.

"Hey, Five," Klaus says, and Five looks up at Klaus and little Ben, three-years-old with a bright smile and curiosity in his eyes. "Ben wants to hang out with his favorite uncle."

Five smirks at Diego, who is gasping in mock-offense next to his wife. "Of course I'm the favorite Uncle."

Klaus rolls his eyes as Ben jumps up into Five's arms. The boy's knee hits the sore spot on Five's side. There's something that didn't heal quite entirely in the wound, something that still aches sometimes, even years later.

But it's worth it. When he thinks about why he got this wound- killing President Handler, saving his family, effectively ending the war and allowing a pretty morally decent woman like Commander Paylor to be elected to the Presidency- he can't regret the pain in his side.

"So, Ben," Five says, looking at his nephew, face of the future that Five worked so hard attain. "What do you want to do?"

In the background, Klaus is laughing with Dave, Diego, and Eudora. Allison and Luther are playing with all the kids save Ben, Claire leading around Rue, Miguel, and Lily. Vanya, Katniss, and Peeta are talking new additions to the bakery in the corner.

(His family is happy, and that's all Five could ask for.)

Ben smiles at Five. "What do _you_ want to play, Uncle Five?"

Five smiles right back. "Anything, kid."

Ben starts babbling about a new card game Klaus taught him, and Five just listens. Whatever game Ben directs him to, Five's okay with.

After all, there are much worse Games to play.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I should have written a sadder ending, it would have been more realistic, but...fuck it, I wanted something happy for these poor people after putting them through such hell.
> 
> Also, yes, I did use the final line from the original books. It was just too great to pass up. 
> 
> I don't know if there will be more stories in this 'verse, so if there aren't any, I'd just like to thank everyone for reading until the end. I hope you all enjoyed this 'verse. Feel free to leave a comment- comments are a writer's lifeblood, of course- and a kudos if you liked this!
> 
> Hope you all have a wonderful day.


End file.
